Electric bills for customers in the Houston area can more than double in summer months, mainly because air conditioning. Not coincidentally, electric rates also rise in the summer months because of this increase in demand. The most dramatic rate increases occur in month-to-month plans, but electric rates do increase across the board for all fixed-rate contract lengths.

In the Houston area, only 16 percent of CenterPoint Energy’s 2.4 million residential customers — or about one in six — switched their electricity providers over the past year, according to the state’s grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Among the 3.5 million customers of the state’s largest electric distribution utility, Oncor of Dallas, just 13 percent — only one in eight — signed up with a new retail power company in the last 12 months.

Although there is electricity running to the house, the account is not in the home owner’s name – it’s in the builder’s name since, technically, the builder owns the property until you’ve paid him in full. Another thing a lot of first-time home owners don’t realize is that Houston electricity retailers often give preferred rates to corporate clients like housing contractors. Like many other producers, Retail Electric Providers like bulk purchases and you can’t get much more bulk purchasing than trucks full of power tools, spot heaters, loud radios, directional lighting, hand tools, battery chargers, and so on! This means you can’t even gauge how much your electric bill will be based on prior bills because the usage pattern is not typical and, on top of that, you’re probably not going to get the same rate as your builder did.
*Save Over £390 - Over 10% of the estimated quotations raised by users of the Simply Switch Website to switch their gas and electricity suppliers between 01/02/2015 - 01/06/2015 produced a predicted annual saving of £390 or more. Current combined spend for gas and electricity of between £84 and £6869. Savings may have included Direct Debit and online discounts. Energy prices vary by usage and postcode.
Even though customers in deregulated cities routinely pay more for electricity, there is a bright spot. The gap between the average price paid for electricity between deregulated cities like Houston and regulated cities like San Antonio have dwindled to the narrowest point ever to 8.8 percent. Back in 2006, customers in deregulated cities were paying nearly 47 percent more for electricity than their counterparts in regulated cities.
Texas Power Agents: For $99 a year, Texas Power Agents will evaluate your current contract terms, access your historical usage, and determine the best plan for you going forward. If you are currently in a contract with an early termination fee, they can calculate if it is best for you to cancel now or stay until the contract is finished before securing a better deal. More info
Prepaid electricity plans are yet another option available to Texas customers. Prepaid plans let you avoid credit checks and deposits by pre-paying for your electricity. Prepaid electricity plans typically do not have a fixed duration and operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. Shopping for prepaid electricity can often yield relatively cheap electricity with no deposit. See Prepaid Electricity: Is It Right For Me? for more.
Patrick Mays, an engineer for an oil and gas company in Houston, recently went shopping for a new electricity plan and found that the best deal available would cost about 55 percent more than what he’s paying, boosting his average rate to 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour from 6.1 cents under his expiring 12-month contract. The power bills for his 2,000-square foot home will climb an average of $30 a month over the year, he said, but he will take the brunt of the rate increase during the hot summer when he estimates his monthly bill will top out at $186, nearly double the $95 he paid last year.
3. Customer service: When the only utility available has lousy customer service, nobody is surprised. They don’t even pretend to care – they know they have you over a barrel. With all these new players in town, however, it’s a slap in the face to be treated like royalty until you’ve signed on the dotted line and now they won’t even return your calls or the person on the phone can’t string three English words together or if he does speak English, he’s brand new and panicking trying to pull up your account information.
My True Cost: This website is owned and operated by CenterPoint Energy. When you input your smart meter number, the website can use your usage data to tell you how much your electric bill will be if you picked various plans on its website. CenterPoint charges the Retail Electric Providers if they want to be listed on this site, so there are far fewer plans here than on Power to Choose. When we compared for an inner loop address, there were 83 plans on My True Cost compared to 179 on Power to Choose. You may be missing less expensive plans if you don't look at the state's website also. More info
After spending so much time and energy with energy companies, I figure I should pass this info onto the internet world (within Houston). I am a Centerpoint Energy resident (you don't get to choose the electricity provider you have; it's based on where the electricity is provided). I think Houston is predominantly a Centerpoint energy area (correct me if I'm wrong).
​2013 ​On March 14, CenterPoint Energy announced it was teaming up with ArcLight Capital Partners LLC and Oklahoma City-based OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE) in an $11 billion deal to create one of the largest master limited partnerships in the U.S. The joint venture includes OGE Energy and ArcLight's midstream transportation, gathering and processing business, Enogex LLC, and all of CenterPoint Energy's interstate pipelines and field service businesses. ArcLight Capital Partners is a Boston-based energy investment firm.
We've pioneered our techniques and grown our expertise in the retail energy industry for more than a decade. With hundreds of thousands of customers and firm investor backing, we're a company you can count on. Spark Energy is also proud to be a publically traded company: our NASDAQ ticker is SPKE. Visit our investor relations page for more information.
Texas currently produces and consumes more electricity than any other state in the country. This energy consumption is due to its size, but the ample land makes it a major producer of wind power – a renewable, or green, energy source. The environmentally friendly energy created by wind power is available to many Texas residents to supply the electricity in their home or business.

Energy Choice Experts: This company provides an apples-to-apples cost comparison of all 12 month plans based upon a client's usage history and guarantees they will find the Lowest Annual Cost plan for each client based upon their usage pattern. New clients pay a flat $35. Returning clients pay $30. You sign up the for electricity service yourself. They only provide the analysis (the hard part). More info

Oncor, the state’s largest distribution utility which covers Dallas, Fort Worth and much of North Texas, has already agreed to pass all of the millions of dollars of expected tax savings along to consumers. Oncor agreed to pass the savings along to customers as part of a rate review which is a formal process in which the PUC reviews the appropriateness of rates being charged by the utility. No exact details have been determined with respect to how the savings will be passed along. The rate review was actually completed before the tax reform bill was passed but there was a commitment in principle to passing along the savings. It’s not yet know exactly how much Oncor will save from the lower corporate tax rates but with a $245 million tax bill in 2017 future saving are likely to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

Bounce Energy loves the Internet, especially when it comes to social media. We look at social networks as exciting ways to interact with our customers, share information, and address any concerns you might have. On our social media outlets, you'll find energy efficiency tips, seasonal recipes, energy saving suggestions, green living recommendations, and a host of other fun stuff.

On the other hand, month-to-month variable rate (no-contract) plans don’t have cancellation fees. You won’t be penalized if you find a better deal elsewhere and want to make another switch. And, you won’t be stuck paying more than you should be if the market rate for electricity trends down. But, if it goes up, you’ll be paying more than your in-contract neighbors, and you’ll likely want to shop around again for a better deal.